US forces shot two Shi’ite pilgrims the night of Feb. 7 as they walked to Karbala for the Arbaeen holy day, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said. The victims were a man and a woman, and the man later died of his injuries, the official said. Reports from witnesses said an eight-year-old girl was killed. The US military admitted to the accidental discharge of a weapons. The Interior Ministry said the shooting took place east of Diwaniya, about 110 miles south of Baghdad. Two other pilgrims were killed on Sunday in the Qahira district of Baghdad by a roadside bomb. (NYT, Feb. 8; CNN, AP, Feb. 7)
At least 35 were killed in an attack on Shi’ite pilgrims in Baghdad last month.
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